Ok, so my beautiful wife left for Israel on Monday. She’ll be gone till the 16th. As for me, I’m suffering from boredom. That isn’t to say I don’t have plenty to do…

On Monday, I took Tesia to the airport, along with her parents. As soon as she made it past security, it hit me that I’m going to be completely alone for two weeks. I can take care of myself just fine… but Tesia and I don’t have many friends where we live, and it’s hard to get out and meet new people… so it’s just me, my dog, and my bird for now. We’re keeping the house in order.

Tuesday, I had my first mentor meeting as a candidate for the UMC. All that means is, if they see my potential, I’m one step closer to being a non-ordained, but appointed pastor of the UMC. It’s exciting, I know… Anyway, I had to take a psychological evaluation to see if I’m sane enough to be a pastor. This came in three different formats. The first of which had a “finish the sentence” format. So it basically looked something like this:

“I wish my father ____________________”

There were probably over 50 questions like that, if you could call it a question. My answer was something along the lines of “I wish my father spent more time teaching me about life.” They had the same sentence involving my mother, in which I answered “I wish my mother would have spent more time with her kids.” By the time the psychiatrist looks over my answers, he is going to think I have deep family issues. Really, I don’t, but he could probably pull out a bunch of my crap dealing with my subconscious.
After that, I had to take another evaluation that was a scantron format. It was about 520 questions. They asked the same questions in about 10 different ways, but I guess that makes my answers more accurate I suppose. When I was done, my hand was cramping terribly. But that wasn’t the end.
I had to take a third test online that was about 180 questions long. That wasn’t terrible, though, I was supposed to get out at 3pm, but got out an hour later than expected. That made me late for work, but that’s ok.

Wednesday started my second quarter back at school. This quarter, I’m taking “Great Books: The Bible and Western Culture“, “Psychology: The Science of Behavior“, and “Spanish 2“. I’m a little concerned about Spanish two because I’ve forgotten much of what I’ve learned from Spanish 1 in the previous quarter. We had a 6 week long break, and frankly, my brain didn’t feel the need to retain it! I’ll be alright though. I just need to keep up with my studying.
Psychology is going to be interesting, but my professor speaks really fast, and we zoom through the material. The awesome thing is, all of our tests are open note and open book. If I still do bad, I have 5 chances to retake each test. That’s what I call mercy!
My Bible class, though, is going to be the most entertaining, I think. Just today, I learned much about the culture of the “Fertile Crescent” area during the Iron age. It’s also a writing intensive class, so I’ve been assigned three papers to write. The first of which has to do with how important the Bible is in my life, if important at all. The second is to write a paper discussing the Biblical influence in one of four films my professor has preselected. The third is to talk about one topic talked about in class that has made an impact on me and my understanding of the Bible. This class is going to be a breeze. It’s going to be really interesting learning this stuff from a secular perspective.

So I’ve been lonely while my wife’s been away. It is true what they say though. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. I keep thinking about how much I really want to hold on to her right now, and she’s only been gone for a few days! She’s having a great time though and is having a great experience!

That’s what I’ve got for now. Peace

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,

exalted for thee or brought low for thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

thou art mine, and I am thine.

So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

let it be ratified in heaven.

Amen.

The “Wesley Covenant Prayer” written by John Wesley

For those of you who don’t know, I wrote a post last week asking for your prayers concerning Brandon Heath- my sister’s long-term boyfriend’s brother. He was hit by a car on Christmas Eve and was hospitalized in critical condition.

On Friday, after spending most of the week in a coma, his mother made the tough decision to have the plug pulled. Everyone agrees, this was for the best.

No one is sure of what exactly happened. It may have been a suicide attempt, as he’s tried multiple times before, but that may be a secret he took to the grave. In any case, this is a sad circumstance. I couldn’t imagine losing any of my brothers. I couldn’t imagine making a decision to put a stop to all machines keeping another human being alive.

I really hope that Brandon found peace with God. I hope God gave him the rest he’s been searching for for so long.

His viewing is tomorrow and his funeral is on Tuesday. I will not be able to make either, and I hope my sister understands.

Thank you for your prayers. They mean a lot to my sister, her boyfriend, their child, and the rest of the family.

Hey everyone. I wanted to turn your attention to my newest blog site, slimmyjimmy2012.xanga.com

The realization that I am getting older and less healthy is coming upon me quickly. When I graduated high school, I weighed 145 lbs, though at the time, I had a slight case of anorexia. Almost 8 years later, here I sit at 245.8 lbs. I’ve gained 100 lbs. in 8 years. Not cool.

So, my new years resolution is to lose 50 lbs. in 2012. I know I can do this, and if you’d like, I’d love your encouragement, so feel free to add me at my new account!

This should come easy to me. I work at the YMCA, so I have a free membership. Getting myself motivated is the kicker. Regardless, I can’t reach my goal without your help, which is why I set up the new account.

Thanks in advance for all your help. You rock!

My sister’s boyfriend’s brother was hit by a car tonight. He is at a hospital in critical condition. I’m not too sure of the details. That’s all I know.

Prayers are appreciated. Thank you.

Jimmy

I have a number of things to say about Christmas this year, so I am really unsure of the flow of this post. However, I wanted to share my opinion on a few things, if you don’t mind reading it.

It’s pretty silly, isn’t it? I’ve seen so many posts this Christmas season talking about the real reason for Christmas. All of them make great points, but sometimes people just don’t want to agree to disagree, or see where others may be coming from.

For instance, I think, for the most part, Christians get that it isn’t Jesus’ real birthday- just that it is the day the Church has chosen to celebrate Christ’s birth. Christmas is literally “Christ’s Mass” so when we refer to Christmas, really we are saying that we are with Christ in mission. That is really what Christmas means and there is no getting around that.

So, about the origin of Christmas, most Christians today know that it was originally a pagan holiday adopted by the Christians. It was a day known as “Bruma” which celebrated the winter solstice. To understand the significance of this day to Christians, you need to understand the importance of the “light” in the darkness. The winter solstice is the darkest day in the year. From that day on, until the summer solstice, everything will be getting lighter. We, as Christians, believe that Christ is the Light of our path, and as believers, we become bearers of His light. So one can see the importance of this day and why the Church has adopted it as the day we celebrate Christ’s entrance into the world. It’s not about stealing a pagan holiday. It’s about showing the relevance of Christ in the world. It shows how He can apply to anything. And for two thousand years, this is what the Church has done. We’ve taken elements of the culture and showed the world how Christ applies. Sometimes this has been done in a somewhat lazy and careless manner, but as for Christmas, it is one of the best things that the Church has ever adopted.

There is a minority of atheists and other non-believers that would like to take the “Christ” out of Christmas. I’ve never heard anyone simply suggest “Mas” or “Mass”, probably because it is a Christian term, but I’ve seen Xmas. It’s funny, really. I see Christians get up in arms about that.
“They are taking ‘Christ’ out of Christmas!” they say. This is simply fear talking. First of all Xmas still means “Christmas”. X is the Greek letter “Chi” which is the first letter of Christ. All throughout the history of Christianity, X has referred to Christ in short. So no one is really taking “Christ” out of “Christmas”. It’s always been there. Also, I think it’s important to point out that just because a secular family wants to celebrate Christmas in a non-religious way, doesn’t mean Christ is absent. We have to remember that we believe in an omnipresent God. The idea of someone taking Christ out of Christmas is really asinine. Some people just simply don’t believe. That’s really all there is to say. I mean, even Santa Claus came from “St. Nicholas”, Kris Kringle is “Christkindl” (“Christ Child”), and so on. Though I get how with all the coded language, it’s easy to forget the purpose of Christmas.

 

Speaking of which, I’m not the kind of guy that gets all preachy on the over expenditure on Christmas. Mainly because I know that I am guilty of it too. The way I see it is, Christ is a gift. We reenact this gift of God when we give to others. It puts a joy in my heart to give, especially on Christmas day. It’s significant to me and significant to my family. Sure, companies take advantage of giving. It is also a gift, in itself, to live simply and give in a simple way. This is why, for the Christian, it is important to remember that the joy of Christmas isn’t in the gift giving. It’s in the meaning of why we give gifts to one another to begin with. Keeping in mind, first and foremost that without Christ, we would not be celebrating this holiday, helps immensely when we go Christmas shopping. It gets us out of this mentality that the person or people we are giving to “really NEEDS this gift”. Instead, it helps us remember that, “I really want to give this to ‘so-n-so’!” There is a giant difference there, isn’t there? I think so anyway.

The last thing that I wanted to bring up is the offensiveness of the words, “Happy Holidays”. Well, honestly, I really don’t find it offensive. I say “Merry Christmas” because I am a Christian. If someone told me, “Happy Hanukkah!” I might feel a little weird about it, but only because I’m not used to it, but I would exchange a “Happy Hanukkah!” in return. The reason is, I understand that not everyone celebrates Christmas. I feel like if many people were honest with themselves, both Christian and non, many will find out that, maybe, they really aren’t celebrating Christmas- the day we celebrate Christ’s birth, but instead, an Americanized holiday of giving presents and feeling frustrated. In that sense, for some, “Happy Holidays” is probably a more honest way to greet others in a celebratory manner in the Christmas season. Despite this, I would still urge Christians to tell others “Merry Christmas” not because it’s a holiday we just celebrate, but because of the significance of Christ in our world.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and find the Light of Christ in your lives this season.

Merry Christmas!

I work in Downtown Dayton. I take a 20 minute drive to get there down Main Street.

Today, as I was driving to work, about 5 minutes into my trip, I saw about four police cars, 2 ambulances, and a fire truck all in the middle of the road. I thought to myself, “Wow, that must be some wreck.” 

As I slowly drove past the accident, I saw two cars stopped in the middle of the road with all the emergency vehicles surrounding them. They didn’t look like they had any damage done to their cars. There was another police car and another ambulance driving up Main, and I noticed in between the two cars was a paramedic giving CPR to a person laying on the ground. I wondered if a person suffered a heart attack while driving, causing the accident.

I felt terrible. All I could think of was, “Oh, Jesus! Help this situation!” And I kept repeating that all the way to work.

I had to go in to work and pretty much pretend that I hadn’t seen anything, but my soul was crushed by what I had seen.

I got off work 3 hours later. As I was on my way back home, the emergency vehicles had blocked off the entire road. I had to find a different way to get home, but I was really surprised to see the cars still there. As I said, there didn’t seem to be any noticable damage to either of the cars I saw in the middle of the road.

Upon getting home, I decided to check the news to see what had happened. LINK

A 34 year-old woman got hit by a car heading south, which threw her in the path of a car going north, as she was crossing the street. Despite the paramedic’s best efforts, the woman he was giving CPR to had died.

There have been many times where I would almost hit pedestrians crossing the street in Dayton. So many people don’t use the cross walks and walk dangerously close to passing cars. In fact I read in the news that only days ago, a 23 year-old man was struck and killed as he was crossing Main Street too. It’s sad that things like this have to happen.

The worst of it all is, it is so close to Christmas. For this woman’s family, Christmas will never be the same again.

To think… If I had been there just a minute sooner, I would have seen the entire accident. I don’t know how I would have taken that. I’m rather sensitive.

So please pray for the families of this woman. Pray for the elderly man and the young woman who hit her. Nobody expects things like this at Christmas time.

Always take opportunities to do good things for others. That is one thing that I’ve been learning lately.

In the late spring earlier this year, I went for a bank run. I went inside to take my money in and I saw a little elderly lady sitting there in the lobby of the bank. She looked familiar, and as I got closer, I noticed that the lady was Betty.

Betty is a lady in her mid 80′s. She has the dearest heart. She goes to my church and is still very active in within it. It isn’t unlikely for her to go up to the pulpit with her shaky voice and give the scripture reading- memorized by heart. She’s a wonderful woman and I’ve never heard a single bad comment coming from her mouth.

When I noticed it was her, I started to pass and said, “Hello, Betty!”

I thought I was just going to get a simple hello, but I could tell something was wrong with her.

“Hi there, Jimmy!” She said. “I’m so happy to see you here! I’ve done such a foolish thing!”

“Oh really? What’s that?”

“I locked my keys in my car! Would you be able to take me home so I can get my spare keys?”

“Yes! Of course I will do that for you, Betty!”

“Oh, bless your heart!” she replied.

I drove her to her house. She got her keys. We drove back to the bank and I waited as she got in her car and drove away.

 

Ever since that day, any time I would see her, she tells everyone around her that I am her guardian angel, as she tells them the story of how God sent me to save her when she locked her keys in her car. I tend to lack confidence, so it’s great to have people like her around to give me the ego boost I so often need. Honestly, I’m just happy to help.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, sometimes, we’ll never know the impact we have on people when we do good to them. Do good, and do good often. Someone may be depending on you!

…

SPACE GHOST!

 

 

_

 

Maybe there’s something wrong with me…_

I’ve been seeing a lot of posts lately asking about why people hate Christians. I think that if a lot of Christians are honest with themselves, they will see why people hate Christianity.

Why are Christians so annoying?

Why are Christians so intolerant?

Why are Christians so closed minded?

Why are Christians so ignorant?

Why are Christians so arrogant?

Why are Christians so unlike Christ?

Why are Christians so crazy?

Why are Christians so nice?

Why are Christians so happy?

 

I wouldn’t exactly call 2 for 9 a winning streak.

So, why do people hate Christians? The answer is because we often forget why we are Christians in the first place. It’s all about the fire insurance mentality, isn’t it? Many of us are so caught up in the idea that we don’t want to go to hell that we forget that there is a purpose to having the Holy Spirit with us. Through this gift, God empowers us to do good works to build His kingdom. Maybe faith through God’s grace is enough for our salvation, but it isn’t enough to be a Christian.

This is why I hate the altar calls in churches. It’s good that through them, many people meet God in a very personal way, but people often don’t know where to go from there. They may start going to church every Sunday, which is good, but that doesn’t make people into disciples. Being a disciple of Christ is so much more.

So why are Christians so annoying, intolerant, closed minded, ignorant, arrogant, unlike Christ, and crazy? Well, because too many people are only coming to Christ to save themselves from an afterlife in Hell instead of coming to Christ to help save the world from the Hell of the here and now. Why do so many people hate Christians? Because we are too worried about everyone’s afterlife rather than worried about what they are going through now. It’s no wonder Christians are so hated. Sometimes, we just don’t get it.

I can’t wait for a world when people start asking google:

Why are Christians so fun?

Why are Christians so loving?

Why are Christians so accepting?

Why are Christians so wise?

Why are Christians so humble?

Why do I see Jesus when I see Christians?

Why do Christians “get me”?

 

I don’t believe that time is too far off. I do think we have a lot of work to do to get there, though.

There is a song from a few years ago that I think captures our purpose, clearly.

 

This song is a challenge to me. As a Christian, it brings me joy to see others come to Christ… But why don’t I cry for those who so desperately need their savior? Am I reaching out my hand to lift those up who need a helping hand? Am I showing the lost the way back home? Have I forsaken love and mercy?

So what is the answer to these questions on why people hate Christianity? Well, I have an answer, but I can only blame myself because I know I don’t do enough to show others what the Kingdom of Heaven is all about.